Nofence Grazing Technology Offers a New Alternative to Traditional Fencing
With the rising cost of permanent fencing and the labor required to move temporary fence, livestock producers are increasingly looking for more efficient grazing solutions. Nofence Grazing Technology is offering an innovative alternative through virtual fencing, helping producers manage livestock while reducing time, labor, and infrastructure expenses.
We caught up with Charles Hord with Nofence to learn more about how the system works and why it is gaining traction among cattle, sheep, and goat producers. According to Hord, the concept is straightforward and familiar to many producers.
“Nofence is a virtual fencing solution for livestock, very similar concept to an invisible fence for dogs in terms of how it works.”
Unlike traditional fencing systems, Nofence requires no physical infrastructure in the field. “There’s no buried wires, no base stations. We use GPS satellite signals to set the boundaries and then the livestock, whether it’s cattle or sheep or goats, wear collars,” Hord explained. When animals approach a boundary, they receive an audible warning. “When they come up to the boundary they get a warning sound first and then if they continue on they get a pulse that tells them it’s time to turn around.”
Training livestock to the system is relatively quick. “So you need about a week training period and once they’re trained to that warning sound you’ll see on the app on your phone they very seldom actually continue on to get a pulse,” he said.
The entire system is managed through a smartphone app, making it accessible and easy to use. “So it’s really all done by an app on your phone, both setting the boundaries, assigning the collars to those boundaries and then you’re ready to go.” One of the biggest advantages, according to producers using the system, is how simple it is to adjust grazing areas.
“A lot of farmers are using it for really intensive grazing practices and instead of having to move the polywire or having to get out there every day and do that you can literally do it in a few minutes on the app on your phone, give a new area to graze in.”
Virtual fencing also opens up grazing opportunities that were previously difficult to manage. “We know about the big fields of corn and crop residue that we don’t always able to use as a resource just because you don’t have fencing around it and now you can do that,” Hord said. “You can put those cattle out there, draw the boundary and make use of some of those resources like that to really extend your grazing season.”
As producers continue to look for ways to improve efficiency and maximize grazing resources, virtual fencing technology like Nofence is emerging as a practical and flexible tool for modern livestock operations.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.